Trustpilot Reviews With Stephanie Gillies | ProActive Podcast #133

Gaining consumer trust is one of the hardest parts of business, but new research from Trustpilot suggests there is a simple and powerful way to do so - by exhibiting positive company values.

The study, released in late 2021, found that “49 per cent of Australians now consider a brand’s stance on social, political and environmental issues before buying products or services.”

This trend likely emerged as a response to years of disingenuous messaging from companies, greenwashing, greed, and less than ideal transparency.

Compounding public skepticism of brands is the prevalence of online scams. In 2020 alone, Australians filed more than 216,000 reports to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s ‘Scamwatch’ website, reporting around $178 million as lost.

So how are your potential customers deciding whether your business is worthy of their patronage?

The quick answer is, they’re checking your social media (44%), asking friends and family (43%), and reading user-generated reviews (43%).

In Trustpilot’s research they discovered that “89% of global consumers usually check online reviews as part of their online buying journey, and 49% of global consumers consider positive reviews one of their top 3 purchase influences.

Depending on the type of business you operate, consumers will often Google your brand or product name accompanied by the word “reviews” or “scam.”

Addressing these searches on your own website is great, but having a third party platform that helps reinforce your trustworthiness is a major bonus.

Trustpilot is, without a doubt, one of those important third parties.

While Google reviews are great, and managing and responding to them can help you improve your Google ranking, even this platform has its limitations.

According to Sendgrid Data (2019), 38% of Aussies have a Gmail account which means that potentially 62% of the customers you ask for a Google Review may not be able to complete the task.

This presents the opportunity for Trustpilot to be a great alternative or addition to Google Reviews.

In light of all this I decided to conduct a podcast with Stephanie Gilliesfrom Trustpilot to ask her some burning questions.